


Maybe you're thinking it's better if you drive

by danglinghearts



Category: Unter Uns
Genre: Angst, M/M, based on future spoilers, but with a promising ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-07-23
Packaged: 2019-06-15 05:57:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15406512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/danglinghearts/pseuds/danglinghearts
Summary: Based on the spoilers that they’re breaking up.Angst with promising ending.





	Maybe you're thinking it's better if you drive

**Author's Note:**

> A humongeous THANK YOU to @getyourfaceoutofmyface for the encouragement and the betaing. Love you.

They’re standing in Easy’s living room. Ringo had followed him in a rush, running up the stairs, pleading with Easy to just listen to him. But Easy had held up his hands and told Ringo to shut up and listen, and for once, Ringo had done just so.

“Do you remember when we were standing outside the train station that night? You said, you said if I gave you another chance, you’d do anything not to screw it up again?”

Easy sees the memory flash past Ringo’s eyes as he visibly swallows and nods.

“And I said, it wasn’t going to happen because I was going to watch over you now? Well this is it, Ringo. This is where I draw the line.” Tears are escaping his eyes, but Easy has to push through. “I know your career is important to you, and I might not understand why, but it is, and I respect that. But what it does to you, what Huber does to you… He can make rules for the office and how you behave at work, that’s his prerogative. But then he starts making demands on our personal life?”

“But you, you agreed. It was only going to be a few weeks-”

“This isn’t about that, Ringo! This is about you!” Easy is shouting now. 

“You go along with it, you don’t see anything wrong with all this! Yeah, you’re out and proud, I know that. But you still do it. You were going to blackmail Spohn over his sexuality! Something you struggled so much with yourself!” Easy sees Ringo open his mouth and knows exactly what he’s going to say.

“Yes I know, I was the one that blackmailed you. That doesn’t mean you can just go around and do it to others! But this.” Easy shakes his head. He has to swallow the lump that forms in his throat when he thinks of what happened only a few hours ago.

“You pimped me out, Ringo.” His voice breaks. “Like a whore.” 

Easy’s eyes close as more tears fall. The vice around his chest tightens. But when he feels Ringo’s hands on his arms he jumps back and knocks the hands away. “No! You don’t get to touch me again!”

There’s heartbreak in Ringo’s eyes, and Easy can see the sorrow and apologies in them. But it doesn’t change his mind. Not this time.

“You made me feel dirty. Like I’m nothing to you but a commodity to be used to help your career.” Again Ringo’s mouth opens but Easy stops him. “I know you’re sorry.”

“But that’s just it. You’re always sorry. After I point out why this isn’t acceptable behaviour. Even though you know it, cause that’s why you hide it and lie to me, because you know I won’t approve.”

Easy walks around the table. He puts distance between them because he knows that now comes the hardest part.

“When we got together, it was so messed up. What you did to me-” Again he stalls any words from Ringo, “It’s in the past, it’s done, but after it was all over, you were so different. When we got back together and we were happy. And you were, so loving, so selfless. Even when Tobias was attacking you, us, you were so understanding. But ever since you’ve started working for Huber again... “ Easy shakes his head. “It’s like more and more you’re becoming that old Ringo again. That desire for the money, for the success, for Huber’s approval. And I can’t- I can’t live like this Ringo. I don’t like you like this.”

There’s fresh heartbreak in Ringo’s eyes, but he’s fallen silent. 

“I love you. So much. I have never loved anyone the way I love you. And I know you love me too. You’ve shown it in so many different ways. But I can’t live this. And I can’t ask you to give up everything you’ve worked for. You’re good at your job and you love it. I can see it. Hell, I even love you when I see you at work. You’re so beautiful when you’re doing what you love. But I can’t deal with all that comes with it. I just can’t.”

Easy inhales deeply. This is it. 

“So I’m not making you decide between me and your career.” Ringo looks up, surprise evident all over his face. “I’m doing it for you. I’m breaking up with you.” His voice breaks again. “It’s over, Ringo. We were never meant to be together. We were silly to think it was ever going to work.”

Easy takes one last look at Ringo, standing there defeated, at the other side of the table. Easy walks into his bedroom and slides down his door as soon as it closes behind him. He hugs his knees and when after a few minutes, he hears the front door open and close, he bursts out in tears and cries for hours.

Later he’s lying on his bed, hugging his pillow, when he hears the door open again. He knows it’s not Tobias, because it’s too quiet. There’s no shouting, no one wanting to tell him stories of an outrageous client, no one demanding his dinner on the table. 

Easy holds his breath, wonders what Ringo’s doing here. He tries to stay quiet, pretends he’s not there, tries to hear what Ringo’s doing. But it’s only a moment before he hears the door click closed again, and footsteps walking away in the hallway.

Easy stays in bed, listening carefully, making sure there’s no one in the flat. After 20 minutes, he cautiously gets up and sneaks to his door, easing it open to peer into the kitchen. There’s a cardboard box on the kitchen table and a duffle bag on the floor. His duffle bag. The one that was in Ringo’s room…

Sure now that he’s alone, he crosses to the table, curiousity getting the better of him. All the stuff in the box is his. It’s all the little things that had migrated to Ringo’s bedroom. His toothbrush from the WG’s bathroom, his reading glasses that no one knew he needed in the evenings, only Ringo. The pen he likes to write with, and his little book, filled with his random thoughts, shopping lists, things he has to remember for the Kiosk or the Beach. He doesn’t open it. Ringo likes to doodle in it, or leave loving messages for him to find. Easy presses it to his chest as a new wave of sadness washes over him. 

His eyes fall to his duffle bag and he lifts it to the table. It’s filled with his clothes. The ones that had slowly moved into Ringo’s dresser. T-shirts, shirts, underwear, socks and pants. All of it is there. 

Easy doesn’t know how to feel. Apparently Ringo’s already given up on them. He looks into the box again, sees a letter sticking out. It looks just like the letter he’d found in the Kiosk, all those months ago. He knows this is a new one though, because his name is written in shaky handwriting, so different from the sleek writing Ringo usually has.

He carefully opens the envelope and pulls out the letter inside. The same shaky handwriting is smudged in places, teardrops blurring the ink and leaving streaks where a hand had wiped them away.

 

Easy,

I know you don’t want a sorry from me. I know it doesn’t mean anything to you anymore.

So here are all your things back. You won’t have to come around to get them back. Feel free to bring my stuff back. Or burn them, if that makes you feel better. 

I’ll stay out of your way. I’m going to stay at a friend’s for a while so you won’t have to see me in the building. 

You’re right about everything. It was foolish me to believe I deserve someone like you. I’ll forever be grateful for the love you’ve given me. I’ll never forget it. 

I will always love you. 

Goodbye  
Richard

 

* * *

The weeks after their break up are a blur for Easy. It’s hours spent in his bedroom, crying and hugging his pillows until Ringo’s smell has faded completely. It’s their friends wanting to know what’s happened, what Ringo has done now, but Easy doesn’t want to talk to them. 

This heartbreak feels private. So different from last time, when he had felt righteous anger at what Ringo had done. Now… Now their break up is Easy’s doing. 

He tells Tobias it wasn’t working and that’s all he’s saying about it. But when Tobias wants to rail against Ringo, saying he always knew Ringo would do something to hurt his best friend, that he was going to kill his brother, Easy tells him tiredly to stop. Something in his face must show because Tobias stops and lets it go. Easy wonders what Tobias saw, but he looks in the mirror and all he sees are his red rimmed eyes and his flat hair, devoid of its usual hair gel. 

True to his word, Easy doesn’t see Ringo. Even though he hasn’t been back to the WG, he knows Ringo is gone. The building feels empty. 

* * *

One early morning, as he’s putting away a delivery in the Kiosk, he looks up to see Ringo walking to work. He’s dressed in an impeccable suit, as always, but he looks lifeless. Even across the distance, Easy can see how pale Ringo looks. His usual swagger is gone. He walks with his head hung low, as if he’s trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. 

Tobias had told Easy last week Spohn had signed the investment and Huber had thrown a party to celebrate. Ringo had been there but even Huber’s praise hadn’t put a smile on his face. Easy had told Tobias he didn’t want to hear it. Though he’d wondered if Ringo had blackmailed Spohn into signing the contract after all, he decided he didn’t want to know. Spohn wasn’t a good man and Easy didn’t have it in him to care anymore.

* * *

Another week later, Easy’s coming home from a shoot and there’s a commotion. He drops his camera bag in the hallway by the elevator and hurries back to the Schillerallee. 

Huber is standing in the middle of the street, tearing papers and shouting at… Spohn and Ringo?

“You can shred it all you want Benedict, it isn’t going to change anything.” Spohn looks smug.

“You can’t do this! This is illegal!”

Suddenly Tobias is there too, sauntering over from the bakery and standing next to Ringo. “You’ll find it’s all very legal actually. I drafted the paperwork myself.” He happily stuffs a roll in his mouth.

“I’m not going to let you run MY company into the ground with your… your perversities!”

Ringo finally spoke up. “Tut tut, mister Huber, careful. You don’t want the whole neighbourhood hearing what a homophobe you are, do you? Besides, it’s not your company anymore. R&J Alliance Corp is the biggest shareholder now.”

“Do you like the name we came up with? Richard and Jan Alliance Corporation? Has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?” Spohn is smirking at Ringo, and they’re exchanging a high five. Easy wonders if he’s hit his head and is having a very weird dream right now.

“Yes, you probably wouldn’t know, seeing as you’re so disgusted by us, but Alliance is a word commonly associated with the LGBTQ community. You see, we’ve always realised we’re stronger together. Even if that realisation comes with a price.” Easy sees the strain in Ringo’s face, the paleness still there. 

“We’ve been talking to clients and investors, carefully inquiring, and it turns out there are more of us in the building sector than you’d think.” 

“Oh, you can try to contact the Avernus club too if you want, though they won’t be much help. They were very interested to hear how homophobic you are.” Now Eva’s there, looking like the cat that finally got the cream.

Someone must have called the authorities because the police arrives then, and Huber gets dragged away kicking and screaming, shouting that they’re arresting the wrong people. Jacob Huber is leading a crying Andrea and Larissa to Rufus’ taxi, probably ready to bring them to the police station.

As soon as the police cars leave, the quiet returns to the street. Ringo seems to let out the breath he’s been holding, and Spohn laughingly puts an arm around him and leads him back to the offices. As Ringo turns, his eyes lock with Easy, but he quickly looks down. Easy starts to step forward, wanting to talk, wanting to ask what the hell just happened, but he realises he has no right to answers from Ringo anymore.

As soon as Tobias comes home though, he demands an explanation. 

* * *

Tobias lays it all out, how Ringo had approached him with Spohn, with their plan to bring down Huber. How they needed his help to make it was all legal, so Huber couldn’t get out of it. Easy asks him why he hadn’t said anything, and Tobias reminds him he’d told him repeatedly he didn’t want to know. And that Ringo had made it very clear he wasn’t to bother Easy with all this. That he wasn’t doing it for Easy, or to win him back. He was doing it for himself.

Easy lies awake for hours in bed that night, for the first time in two months not because he can’t stop crying, but because the thoughts don’t stop swirling around in his head. This didn’t just magically solve all their problems. But it’s a step in the right direction. Maybe they need to get to know each other again, slowly. Maybe, maybe Easy needs to let go of his own expectations and really get to know Ringo. 

* * *

The next morning, he has Emma run into the offices and bring Ringo a cup of his favourite coffee to start the day. It’s time he starts apologising. 

 

THE END

**Author's Note:**

> I'm making Spohn an ally in this one. Cause we've got to stick together and make the world a better place, one step at a time!


End file.
